Frank Rich once complained that disagreement with the Bush administration had become tantamount to treason. Rich must have been recently released from Bush’s gulags because now he’s back to complaining that the Iraq War’s remaining supporters are nazis.

Rich apparently doesn’t appreciate the irony that his hyperbolic comparisons of America in 2007 to totalitarian regimes are undermined by the very fact that he is still free to write his drivel on the nation’s second most widely read editorial page.

Frank Rich’s other irony is that, in spite of the President’s “gestapo tactics” the only wall between him and his readers over the last six years was built not by Bush, but by his employer: The New York Times.

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25 Responses to “Rich with irony”

[...] Bob Krumm boils down Frank Rich’s assertion in the pages of the NY Times that Iraq War supporters are akin to members of the Nazi Party during WWII to its essentials: Rich apparently doesn’t appreciate the irony that his hyperbolic comparisons of America in 2007 to totalitarian regimes are undermined by the very fact that he is still free to write his drivel on the nation’s second most widely read editorial page. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

Frank Rich? Isn’t he, like, a movie critic?
Still, if you want to see gulags (and what leftie doesn’t?) just elect Hillary….
Wait and see, the leftoids will justify it by saying “well, Bush was a totalitarian so we are just giving the right-wingers back what we had to suffer”.

Mr. Chatterbox how long will you live?
Always to receive but never to give
Always carry news all over the place
Mr. Chatterbox you are a big disgrace
You cheek and you tounge
A go let you down
And a when them let you down
We a go batter you around
Bif, baf, boof, those are the blows you’re gonna get
Mr. Talkative, I know you will regret

Mr. Chatterbox how long will you live
Always to receive but never to give
Always carry news all over the place
You cheek, cheek, cheek, and tounge, tounge, tounge
A go let you down
And a when them let you down
We a go batter you around, hey
Bif-an, baf-an, boof, those are the blows you’re gonna get, hey
Mr. Talkative I know you will regret

Mr. Chatterbox how long will you live?
Always to receive but a never to give
Always carry news all over the place
Mr. Chatterbox you are a big disgrace
You cheek and tounge
A go let you down
And a when them let you down
We a go batter you around
Bif-an, baf-an, boof-an, thats the blows you gonna get
Mr. Chatterbox, I know you will regret
Ooh yeah
Mr. Chatterbox, ooh yeah
Mr. Chatterbox, ooh yeah
[Watch him] Mr. Chatterbox
[Who's-he, who's-he, who's-he, who's-he]
Mr. Chatterbox, ooh yeah

You chastise Rich for hyperbole, yet use the EXACT SAME tactics you’re criticizing. Nowhere in that article does Rich state, suggest, imply, infer, or even allude to ANY notion that Iraq War supporters are Nazis or Gestapo. Unless you’re saying that every single War supporter has tortured someone. His point (which I found pretty simple to comprehend) is that there is no justification for torture, and just because you change its name doesn’t mean it’s NOT torture… and we as a country need to speak out against such practices, and demand that the President and Congress (no matter which party) will never again sully our country’s name by allowing torture, no matter if it’s complicit or implicit.

For #4 (aka ttyl) – check your facts/history. The GeStaPo (Germans love to abbreviate) or Geheiemstaatspolizei, translated to Secret State Police was an organization of the Nazi party. They were the worst of what the Nazi party had to offer. So Mr. Rich is not only calling people Nazis, but saying they are the worst of the worst.

The comment reduces Rich’s comments to name calling. Rich says that the interrogation techniques approved and the language of approval echoes those of the gestapo.
But his most important point is that torture is not only approved by the government, it is being permitted by the public: Americans.
He use of “gestapo” is fair. If you don’t like his choice of words, feel free to suggest another. You attack the mans words but you do not refute the argument: Bush personally sanctioned torture.

THe way I read it our guys are having a hard time getting the Guantanamo inmates to leave. Some of the former prisoners even testify that they are loath to return home.
Everyone of them gained weight while incarcerated.
The definition of torture has expanded.
Seems that our liberals want to ban the use of harsh language on captives. Or is it that our interogaters can still use harsh tones, but you want a more strict time limit so as not to cut into the jihadi prayer/nap time?

Torture has a definition. Like many definitions in this field it is compared to the way we treat our own soldiers. Since US servicemen are “waterboarded” as part of their training, waterboarding is not torture. Since cold, hunger, fatigue are common to US servicemen’s training, (Think Ranger School) then cold, hunger, and fatigue that is of a similar level is not torture.

Rudolf Hess could be interrogated over a chessboard because the Allied armies were secure in their occupation of Germany, and the Japanese either had already, or would soon be defeated by a combination of Nuclear weapons, fire bombing, and our Soviet allies renouncing their non-aggression treaty with Japan. Good things all. The Japanese government was planning on sacrificing 30 millions of their people in a vain attempt to kill 1 million US service men. It is doubtful that all those millions of Japanese would have been dressed in uniforms or would follow the laws of war.

To that the US tortures prisoners based on practices that are the same as those used to train our soldiers, is a lie. To charge US servicemen with Gestapo tactics based one of several translations to or from German is a lie. Of course you don’t really expect much more from the NY Times, the paper of Duranty, Krugman, and Sultzberger.

Papertiger:
We’ve been using the same tactics that the Gestapo did for our “enhanced interrogation” techniques, and the Americans who were POWs (and who interrogated POWs in former wars) say it looks like torture to them.
We hung people for these acts at the end of WWII.
You say that the prisoners “gained weight while incarcerated.” All that means is they’ve been fed. We have a lot of food, you know. Pretty easy to do both feeding and torturing. And it’s not all torture all the time. Just sometimes.
And just because the government hasn’t repealed the first amendment doesn’t mean that it doesn’t torture innocent people (and not innocent ones too). But we founded this country to stand up to those types of tyrannies. Whoever applauds such tactics would shame our Founding Fathers.

The Left is fond of saying that the majority of Americans don’t support the war. I guess then that as a supporter of the war that makes me a dissenter. And remember – dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

“Instead of taxing us for Iraq, the White House bought us off with tax cuts. ”

Crap, the deficit is going up and we’re… oh, it’s going down?

Stupid freaking idiots. There is an (unknown, but real) “best” tax rate. Tax more than this, and you’ll slow the economy and encourage tax fraud (and get less money). Tax less than this, and you’ll get less money than you could.

When you’ve got the taxes above this “optimal” rate, lowering taxes actually gets the Government more money (whereas raising taxes in this case often nets less money). Bush’s spending choices aren’t good, but the tax cuts aren’t hurting the Govt. income.

I have a dream that someday people will figure this out… I also have a dream about being chased by cabbages with switchblades. I’m not sure which will happen first.

When are awe going to call the demovrats what they truly are, traitors? They are NOT dissenting, they are giving aid and comfort to our enemies and are indirectly killing our own soldiers.
Their hatred of Mr. Bush is so irrational and controlling that they would destroy the country if it would hurt Mr. Bush.
The democrat party is garbage; it’s members are traitors!